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Market traders complained they’ve been left out of pocket by thousands of pounds, while visitors said the council should have waited to see how the weather turned out on Sunday morning.

But the council yesterday released a statement saying it absolutely stands by its decision.

John Sheald - packing up

Simon Colburn, Assistant Director for Health and Environmental Services at City of Lincoln Council, said:"At the time we took the decision to close Lincoln Christmas Market a day early we had received clear information from the Met Office, county highways and other partners, that travel to and from the event was likely to be severely disrupted and potentially dangerous due to predicted heavy snowfall.

"In addition, the agreed county-wide message to the public was that only essential journeys should be made on the Sunday.

“We had to take this advice seriously, as we have a duty of care for anyone visiting our event and those affected by it. It was an incredibly difficult decision to make, and not one that was taken lightly, but the reality is that we really had no option but to close early.

“We have since come in for a lot of criticism because the snow actually hit further south in the county than the Met Office predicted.

"This meant the city received less snow than expected. However, we must stress that our decision was based with travelling conditions across the county and beyond in mind.

"This was not a decision made just for the Lincoln area. People come from all over the UK, and many of our neighbouring counties received heavy snowfall that morning.

The final day of the Lincoln Christmas Market has been cancelled and many people are not happy.

He added: “Given that the messages our partners issued for travel on Sunday was that it should only take place in an emergency we couldn’t, therefore, hold a Christmas market that actively encouraged people to go against this advice.

“While we have a range of contingency plans in place for bad weather, the forecasted weather for the Sunday was of such a scale that it would potentially have left many thousands of visitors stranded in the city.

“We have been asked many times over the past four days whether the decision was correct, and we still believe, as do our partner agencies from whom we received advice, that it was.

“Had we opened the market on Sunday and encouraged people to travel to it from far and wide, we may well have been left with a situation where we were defending our decision, having ignored expert advice, in light of people having been stranded, suffering injuries or even loss of life.

"As it is, the action we took allowed county-wide resources, particularly highways and police, to focus on dealing with issues arising in the south of the county without adding to their burden.

“Stallholders, visitors and local traders have since expressed their upset at the closure of the market and we have been listening. We will be helping to promote stallholders through our website and are organising a free parking offer for uphill Lincoln in the run up to Christmas.

“Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience our decision caused but, given our time again with the same information we had, we would have absolutely no option but to make the same one.”

Crowded scenes outside the castle

The Christmas Market is one of the city’s biggest annual events. Around 60,000 people were expected to attend on Sunday.

Baz Blackbourne, a member of the Lincoln Branch of FFN, one of the groups which founded the market, said: “Lincoln is now a laughing stock. Closing the biggest out-of-season event because of potential weather. I’m embarrassed and would like to apologise.